Lordcore: Energy-efficient opencl-programmable software-defined radio coprocessor

Abstract

This paper proposes a single instruction multiple data (SIMD) processor, which is programmed with high-level OpenCL language. The low-power processor is customized for executing multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) detection algorithms at a high performance while consuming very little power making it suitable for software-defined radio (SDR) applications. The novel combination of SIMD operations on a transport programmed multicore datapath allows saving power on both the execution front end and the back end, leading to very good energy efficiency with a compiler programmable design. We demonstrate the feasibility of the architecture with the layered orthogonal lattice detector and minimum mean-square-error MIMO algorithms, which can be used as a software-defined radio implementation of the 3GPP local thermal equilibrium r11 standard. Compared to other state-of-the-art SDR architectures, the proposed design adds features that improve programmer productivity with an insignificant power and area impact.